I was shopping at a Half Price Books store and came across a section where they had computer games. One of them sounded really cool and it was only $6, so I decided, after two hours of roaming the store and buying $60 worth of books, to go ahead and get the game.

Needless to say I haven’t read any of the books. I have, however, played the game almost non-stop for the past three weeks. The game is called Mount&Blade. It’s ridiculously enjoyable to me.

You create your own character and must do…umm…well, whatever you want. That’s right, it’s a completely sandbox game. There’s no linear storyline, there isn’t even an overarching storyline.

There are character stories in the game though, and numerous quests and goals you can make for yourself. You can create your own nation, become a mercenary, become a merchant, become a professional tournament fighter, become a bandit, become the loyal knight of a king, or become the rebellious knight of a claimant to the king’s throne.

You can play as a warrior, an archer, a general, a useless clod who hides behind the human meat shields he or she has hired…however you want to do it.

I’ve gone so far as to purchase the stand-alone expansion pack for it called Mount&Blade: Warband. It has new features like…courting and marrying noble ladies, holding feasts, and putting your chosen heroes in control of the regions you’ve conquered.

This game is what Fable wishes it was. Peter Molyneaux and a team of developers and programmers dream about Mount&Blade in their sleep, and this game was made primarily by a Turkish husband and wife team. That’s right…two programmers and a handful of designers, composers, and writers. Their whole company only had about 8 employees.

I’d love to be a designer or even just a writer for Tale Worlds Entertainment, the company that makes Mount&Blade.

But for now I’ll just settle for that copy of Warband that I bought and should have arriving in a couple weeks.